Buyer's guide · Updated August 2026
Four ways to run a Tesla drive unit
To run a Tesla drive unit outside of a Tesla vehicle you need something to control it. That is true whether you are converting a gas car, building a custom EV from the ground up, or bench testing a standalone unit outside of a vehicle.
These are the top four most widely used controllers, and the first thing separating them is simple: the first two leave Tesla's inverter logic board where it is, and the last two replace it. That one choice shapes most of what follows, from how hard the install is to how much control you get and who you call when something goes wrong.
Dynam Labs VCU+
Dynam Labs · Los Angeles
A purpose-built vehicle control unit that commands the Tesla inverter over CAN, and can run as much or as little of the rest of the car as you want it to. Tremendous extensibility via Lua plugin architecture.
$3,499Launch Edition
Keeps Tesla's boardEV Controls T-2C
EV Controls · Canada
A controller that commands the Tesla inverter over CAN, leaving the factory logic board in the drive unit. Limited onboard charger control, with optional traction control and Model 3/Y battery support.
$2,699controller only
Keeps Tesla's boardAEM VCU275/300
AEM EV · part of Holley
A motorsport-grade vehicle control unit, paired with an AEM inverter control board that replaces the Tesla one. Highly tunable, limited extensibility. Rich ecosystem with CCU, BMS, displays, keypads and more.
~$2,900–5,600VCU275 or VCU300, single motor
Replaces the boardOpeninverter
Community / open source
An open-source logic board that drops into the Tesla inverter in place of the factory one. You own the motor control outright. Optional ZombieVerter VCU, BMS and onboard charger boards. Highly technical community.
from $360per drive unit
Replaces the board→ Swipe the table sideways
| Dynam Labs VCU+DYNAM LABS | EV Controls T-2CEV CONTROLS | AEM VCU275/300AEM EV | OpeninverterOPEN SOURCE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fit & compatibility | VCU+ | T-2C | VCU275/300 | Openinverter |
| How it works | A standalone VCU that commands Tesla's own inverter over CAN, and runs the rest of the car too. | Sits outside the drive unit and commands Tesla's own inverter over CAN. | A standalone VCU plus an AEM inverter control board that replaces the Tesla one. | Replaces the Tesla logic board inside the inverter. The motor control firmware is yours. |
| Drive unit has to come apart? | No. Nothing inside the drive unit is touched. | No. Nothing inside the drive unit is touched. | Yes. The AEM board replaces the Tesla one. An adapter harness is included. | Yes. Open the inverter and swap the board. Connectors can be supplied pre-soldered. |
| Tesla drive units supported | FDU, LDU, SDU and Model 3 rear. | All S/X LDUs. S/X SDU 70–100D, not Raven. Factory P85/90/100D dual-motor. Model 3/Y rear, and M3/Y dual-motor AWD. A front SDU only works as the slave half of a factory pair. | LDU Base "P" and LDU Sport, and the SDU. No Model 3/Y support. | LDU, SDU (front and rear, 2012–2020 non-Raven), Model S/X FDU. Model 3/Y boards exist but are still beta. |
| Non-Tesla motors | Cascadia Motion CM/PM, Dana TM4, Nissan Leaf ZE1 and AZE0. | None. Tesla only. | Broad. Talks to Cascadia Motion and other third-party inverters over CAN. | Large open-source catalogue: Leaf, Prius and Lexus, Outlander, BMW, plus DIY inverters. |
| Dual motor / AWD | Dual-motor is supported. Model S/X LDU+SDU or SDU+SDU. Model 3 RDU+FDU in development. | Yes for factory Tesla pairings, keeping Tesla's master/slave split. | Up to two motor and inverter systems on the VCU275, or four on the VCU300, with independent contactor control for each. | One board per drive unit, and no built-in torque split. You coordinate them yourself over CAN. |
| Reverse mounted operation | Hardware modification required. A reverse mounted drive unit needs a physical phase swap and encoder signal swap. | Hardware modification required. A reverse mounted drive unit needs a physical phase swap and encoder signal swap. | Configurable in software. Direction is a setting. No hardware modification needed. | Configurable in software. Direction is a setting. No hardware modification needed. |
| Control & tuning | VCU+ | T-2C | VCU275/300 | Openinverter |
| Tuning software | Bolt, on Windows, macOS and Linux. A companion phone app, Pulse, adds configurable dashboards and some settings on both iOS and Android. Pulse is in beta at the time of writing. | iPad and iPhone app only. No Android, no desktop. | AEMcal. Free and fully unlocked, but Windows only. | Browser-based, served from the board's own Wi-Fi, plus a command line interface. Any operating system, phone or laptop. Free. |
| How deep the tuning goes | 12×12 3D torque maps, plus Lua plugins for logic you write yourself. | Max power, regen level and drive modes, changeable while you drive. Not a mapping tool. | Programmable torque curves and limits, pedal maps, regen, drive modes, and closed-loop speed control for geared drivetrains. | Full access to the motor control parameters. Nothing is hidden or locked. |
| Traction control | Not yet available. The onboard GPS and Lua plugin system are the pieces it would build on, but nothing has shipped. Treat it as absent until it does. | Optional, $599. A GNSS module feeds true vehicle speed to the controller, which trims torque against measured slip on the millisecond level. It only arms with a valid GPS signal, so it drops out in tunnels, canyons and heavy cover. An aid that can vanish mid-drive is harder to account for than one you never had. | Software based. Calibrated in AEMcal alongside launch control, and inferred from motor acceleration rather than measured wheel speed. No extra hardware and no GPS dependency, so it is always available. | None. Nothing built in. You would be writing it yourself. |
| Tesla's factory protections | Kept, with the VCU's own limits layered on top. | Kept. Overheat and fault strategies run exactly as Tesla wrote them. | Replaced with AEM's own: thermal limits, contactor and inverter enable cross-checks, CAN timeouts. | Gone. You set the thermal and current limits, which is both the appeal and the risk. |
| Data logging | 128 GB onboard, with GPS for lap and traction data. | Logging and fault codes inside the iPad app. | Through an AEM CD dash rather than the VCU itself. | Live parameters in the web interface. Log to a laptop or off the CAN bus. |
| Integrating the rest of the car | VCU+ | T-2C | VCU275/300 | Openinverter |
| Aftermarket dashes | Ten PWM/PFM outputs for original gauges, plus CAN and a DBC. The Pulse phone app doubles as a configurable in-car display. | Will not drive aftermarket displays. A DBC file is supplied so a third-party dash can decode the bus itself. | Deep integration with AEM CD dashes over AEMnet, and CAN for everything else. | Open CAN with published definitions. Works with anything that speaks CAN. |
| Battery management | BMS master included, still in beta. Also integrates with common third-party systems. | Optional Model 3/Y battery module at $899 for pack data and onboard charger control. | AEM BMS18 up to 1200 V, with live discharge current limits feeding the torque model. | Open-source options in the same ecosystem, including the ZombieVerter VCU and a 16-channel BMS. |
| Charging | Works with common chargers. Lua plugins can add things like pack preheating for CCS. | Controls a Model 3/Y onboard charger's state of charge and amperage with the battery add-on. | The AEM CCU combines an onboard charger and DC-DC converter in one module. | Roughly 5 kW AC charging through the motor windings, so no separate onboard charger for Level 2. High-voltage work: professionals only. |
| Inputs and outputs | The largest here: 15 digital in, 8 analog in, 8 high-side and 12 low-side out, 10 PWM/PFM, 4 temp, 3 CAN, 2 SENT, Ethernet, GPS. All of it optional; wire what you need and leave the rest. | Enough for a normal car: PRND buttons, contactors, brake and regen lights, reverse lights, fan control. | Full VCU I/O, with redundancy and arbitration on every safety-critical input. | Modest. A handful of digital and analog inputs plus CAN on a 23-pin Ampseal. |
| Extensibility | High. Lua plugins add custom behaviour without touching core firmware. | None. Closed. What ships is what you get. | Limited. Deep calibration through AEMcal, but the firmware itself is closed. | Highest. The source code is yours. Fork it, or build your own board from the published files. |
| Living with it | VCU+ | T-2C | VCU275/300 | Openinverter |
| Wiring, install & setup | Lowest. The large I/O count is optional. Wire only what you use. Getting basic motor control running is about the same job as a T-2C. | Lowest. Twelve volts, CAN, a pedal and a few outputs, and you have PRND, contactors and lights. | Highest. Board swap, full VCU wiring, and then the setup on top: outputs are split between high-side, low-side and PWM, and a PWM channel has to be given the right duty cycle before it will behave as a plain on/off output. | Moderate. The inverter comes apart and the board swaps in, which is relatively straightforward now that the boards can be supplied pre-soldered. Optional ZombieVerter VCU adds some complexity. |
| Flashing the drive unit | Self-service. Done in Bolt, with no extra hardware and no limit on how many drive units you flash. | Not self-service. The controller reflashes the inverter, but the licence covers one drive unit per controller, and further units go through EV Controls. | Self-service. You flash the AEM board yourself when new firmware appears, using AEM's utility and harness. | Self-service. Flash it yourself over the web interface, over CAN, or over UART through a USB serial adapter. |
| Changing drive units later | Reflash it yourself, as many times and on as many units as you like. | Only through EV Controls, and the procedure is not published. Workable as a one-off after damage or an upgrade. Not something to plan on doing repeatedly. | Buy the AEM control board that matches the new drive unit. No licensing gate, but real money. | Move the board across, or buy another. Nobody's permission required. |
| Firmware updates | Over the air from Dynam's servers, one click in Bolt. | Over the air through the app. | Through AEMcal, with application-specific firmware supplied on request. | Free, open, and self-flashed. You decide when. |
| Support | Dealer first, Dynam as backstop. Your reseller handles the front line and escalates to Dynam when needed. Extremely responsive in practice. | Direct from a small Canadian shop, email first. Long field record. | Dealer first, AEM as backstop. Your reseller handles the front line and escalates to AEM when needed. Responsiveness varies in practice. | Community forums and wiki, plus paid support hours from the project. Boards purchased from Westside EV include initial setup support. |
| Warranty & backing | Young company with an active roadmap. Units are serialised and bench-tested before shipping. | Small independent manufacturer, shipping since 2017. | One-year manufacturer warranty, and a parent company with a nationwide dealer network. | None from the project itself. Westside EV guarantees boards arrive functional and free of defects, or will replace them at no cost. |
| Track record | Newest of the four. In service at shops including Current LA, and named SEMA 2025 Best Emerging Technology. | Land speed records, nine-second drag cars, and a long list of shop builds. | Backed by a motorsport electronics company founded in 1987. The Tesla boards were co-developed with Cascadia Motion. | Thousands of builds worldwide since 2017. The default for DIY conversions. |
| Typical spend | $3,499 for the Launch Edition. Connector kit extra. | $2,699 for the controller, around $3,700 as a full kit with harness. Model 3/Y battery option adds $899, traction control module $599. | ~$2,900–5,600 for a single motor with control board and connectors, the spread being the VCU275 at $1,650 against the VCU300 at $4,200. Each extra drive unit needs its own board. | from $360 per drive unit for the board and connectors. Or make them yourself from the freely available design files, with a $2 a month Patreon to Damien Maguire encouraged but not required. |
| The short version | VCU+ | T-2C | VCU275/300 | Openinverter |
| Pick it if | You want the most flexible, modern and easy to use option, the freedom to change or upgrade motors at will, and value a fast-moving roadmap over the longest track record. | You want a long field record, a solution that “just works” and drives the way Tesla intended, or Model 3/Y dual-motor support today. | You are building a high-performance motorsport racing application, and want an OEM-style safety architecture with a company behind it. | You are technical, budget matters, and you want no ceilings and no black boxes. |
| Think twice if | You want the longest possible field record, need traction control, or Model 3/Y dual-motor support today. | You want the most flexible and future-proof solution, the freedom to change or upgrade motors, or real calibration depth. | You are on a Model 3/Y drive unit, you work on a Mac, you are watching total system cost, or you want a short path from box to driving. | You want a manufacturer on the hook when something goes wrong, or you would rather not learn from a forum. |
If you are bench testing rather than building
A shop spinning drive units on a stand is solving a different problem, and being able to quickly connect and test different motors is the primary requirement. In this area the Dynam Labs VCU+ is the clear answer. You can save multiple profiles for different motor types and switch between them as needed, and there is no limit on the number of drive units you can use it with. It also leaves Tesla's logic board in place, so you are testing the entire unit, and it can capture performance logs for analysis. The other three all present hindrances of one kind or another for this type of application.
Openinverter is far cheaper and will happily spin a motor, but replacing the logic board means the board becomes the one thing you are no longer testing. You would also need a different board per family: the LDU swaps easily, the SDU needs its potted current sensors out first, and the Model 3 needs extensive soldering plus parts transferred off the OEM board, which is not really practical. The T-2C is not a viable option here at all. Its licence covers one drive unit per controller, with no self-service way to change that, so it cannot move from unit to unit. The AEM VCU275/300 is a serious configuration exercise for a job that does not require one, and it replaces the logic board as well, so the same blind spot applies.
Plan for the flash back. The drive unit firmware has to be flashed to work with the Dynam Labs VCU+, and that firmware is likely not compatible with the Tesla vehicle it came out of. After the unit goes back into the car you will need to reinstall from the service menu or Tesla Toolbox to return it to the factory software. Budget time for that step.
None of these options will function in a Tesla vehicle. They run the drive unit outside the car, for conversions, ground-up EV builds, and bench or test stand work.
Reverse mounting is more than an electrical change. A drive unit with an internal mechanical oil pump needs the pump modified as well, since it is driven by rotation. Units with an external electric pump do not. Either way this is drive unit work, and no controller handles it.
These four are not the only controllers on the market. Others exist, aimed at different Tesla hardware generations or at niches narrow enough that most builders never encounter them.
Prices are indicative, in USD, as of August 2026, and exclude contactors, precharge, wiring, cooling and the drive unit itself. Check current pricing before you budget.
Not sure which way to go? Tell us what you are building, where the motor is mounted and which direction it needs to spin, and we will tell you honestly which of these fits, including the ones we do not sell.